1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus such as a digital still camera and a digital video camera, and more specifically, to an imaging apparatus such as a digital still camera and a digital video camera having an automatic focusing function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently, imaging apparatuses such as digital still cameras and digital video cameras having an image sensor such as a CCD or a CMOS are explosively widespread. The mainstream of these imaging apparatuses is a type that detects the focus condition based on the image signal of the object and performs automatic focusing control by moving the focusing lens unit included in the taking optical system in the direction of the optical axis based on the result of the detection.
As the imaging apparatuses have become multifunctional, higher functionality has been required of automatic focusing control. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-37733 proposes an automatic focusing device for imaging apparatuses in which the image signal of the object is divided into a plurality of AF areas and the number of pixels of the skin color in each area is counted to thereby identify the AF area for which focus adjustment is performed.
The automatic focusing device described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-37733 assumes that the main object is a person. That is, in the automatic focusing device described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-37733, by performing focusing control based on the pixels of the skin color, the focus area follows the person, so that the person can be always brought in focus with accuracy.
In the automatic focusing device described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-37733, since only a person is assumed to be the main object, the object following for focusing cannot be performed when the object is other than a person. Since the main object of digital still cameras, digital video cameras and the like is not always a person, the automatic focusing device described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-37733 does not sufficiently meet the user's requirements.
An object of the present invention is to provide a high-functionality imaging apparatus capable of performing focus adjustment on an object which can be arbitrarily set.